A Night of Strife
by Zeff N Company
Summary: Anything else he might have said plunged to its painful death in the pit of his stomach. He blinked. And thirty-six pairs of wide eyes fringed by blond hair held up in spikes blinked back.


_One of a few ideas for Halloween I had, but the only one that not only saw its "the end", but was actually finished early. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on anything else I might come up with, but no promises; tired old men no longer have good schedules for hobbies..._

_On a slightly different topic, I took a note out of _No More Than Dreams_. Those who have read that might catch it when it comes._

* * *

Twelve hours ago, the Restoration Committee was officially given the night and following day off. Thirty seconds later, Cid decided that he really, really, liked the kid who made that call.

"I love ya," he murmured into his couch. "I love ya so much, I'ma make freak babies with ya."

The couch had nothing to say, but then Cid did like the silent types.

It seemed like the perfect evening for him – with all the work done and nothing to do tomorrow but kick back and relax, there was nothing stopping him from enjoying some early R and R. He was just drifting off to naming the first three of his future children with the couch Cush, Pill and Susan when his well laid plans were jumped upon.

"_What are you_ _doing?_"

The loud clamor could not hurt his ears any more had Tifa pulled a megaphone out of thin air and aimed straight at his head. Before he could fully register what was happening, the intruder upon his forty winks vaulted over the couch and hauled him to his feet.

"Don't just lie there! The sun's gone down!"

"Dang yeah, it has," Cid muttered back drowsily. "Now put me back in bloody Costa Del Sol. I want my Hyne-frickin' vacation, and I want every Hyne-frickin' second of it."

"…you have no idea what today is, do you?" And when the man gave no answer, Tifa dropped him on the carpet. "It's Halloween night! There is no vacation!"

Two seconds later, Cid decided he really, really, wanted the kid who made that call to shrivel up and die.

"It's only a matter of time before all the kids in the neighborhood will be stopping by this house," the voice somewhere over his head continued, "so please tell me you dropped into Halloween Town and got the candy like I asked you to."

"…you did?"

"You forgot."

"It ain't my damned business to grocery shop! That's Leon's job!"

"And Leon gave us the time off to do it because _he_ couldn't. Weren't you listening in this morning's briefing?"

"With the fact that no one had coffee that early, all I heard was blah, blah-blah-blah take the night and tomorrow off, blah-blah-blah…and blah."

Tifa stared at him for a good five counts, and pinched the bridge of her nose smartly at the onslaught of a new headache.

"Right… What he said was that he was expecting his relatives to be visiting tonight, and he wanted to spend some time with his nephew."

"He has relatives?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Apparently, Leon and Irvine are both convinced that the unexplainable feeling of familiarity they have means they're somehow related, but won't go as far as to call themselves brothers."

"And we can't just shatter their miserable delusions and tell them they're complete strangers with mutual nostalgia and make the punk come back to work?"

"We can't. That means we get candy duty, and we have no candy until I can contact someone to make the extra trip. That leaves us with-" the planning session was promptly interrupted with a rapid knocking at the door, "-absolutely no time to do a thing but panic. Do you have any ideas?"

To that, Cid merely shrugged carelessly. "We just tell them we have no bloody candy?"

"Cid, they're kids on a quest for sugar! You can't just tell them you have no candy for them!"

With a dismissive snort, Cid brushed his knees down and marched to the door. "They're knee-high piss-beds in stupid costumes. What could they possibly do?"

Said door was opened, and as Cid looked out, then down, anything else he might have said plunged to its painful death in the pit of his stomach. All he could do, given his situation, was blink.

And so he blinked.

And thirty-six pairs of wide eyes fringed by blond hair held up in spikes blinked back.

As they continued to stare openly at one another, Tifa saw what the commotion was about and turned her attention to the one that needed it more.

"Breathe, Cid," she advised.

At last, the man stoically backtracked into the house and shut the door once more. The house was suddenly filled with a tension so thick, he could have diced it, boiled it with sugar, and thrown it to the waiting mob outside.

Waiting on the couch was Yuffie, flipping through a magazine. "They're scary when they work together, aren't they?"

"How did you get in here?"

"Window," the ninja supplied helpfully. "Only way to bypass the herd of doppelgangers. I thought you could handle them, big guy."

"I said knee-high piss-beds in stupid costumes, not thirty-six knee-high piss-beds dressed like Strife," Cid corrected. "I think one of them was carrying a nail bat."

"You gotta admit the one in the purple dress was kinda cute."

"That was the one with the nail bat."

"Yuffie," Tifa cut in quickly, "you stopped by Scrooge's and Merlin's, right? Do you still have any candy left on you?"

"Why would I?"

There was a loud shatter as something that looked like a miniature foam bat stabbed repeatedly with nails came through the window and landed on the carpet in a spray of glass. There was a long, drawn out count.

Then there was another.

Then there was a third.

"… _Hey!_ Little Miss Clouds in purple dresses are supposed to be _nice!_"

There was a moment of hesitation before Tifa picked up the foam bat and carefully pushed it back through the neatly punched hole in the window.

"We're doomed, aren't we?"

"If there is an Odin in Gaia and this Odin knows about my porn stash, then yes."

Yuffie's head turned so fast her neck cracked. "…about your _what_?"

"_Can we focus?_" Tifa snapped irritably. The foam bat dropped back in, and she pushed it back out again. "We can't go on like this. If that mob mentality keeps up, they'll be jumping in here and everywhere until they get what they want."

"So you got a plan, then?"

"I'm calling for anyone within vicinity of Halloween Town to bring in supplies. Cid, you get a hold on Leon and let him know what's happening. And Yuffie…"

One second she was still on the couch, the next the crusty mechanic had grabbed her by her shorts and punted her through the door.

"Stall them," he informed bluntly as he shut the door once more.

Yuffie, still flat on her rump, looked at all thirty-six children. All thirty-six children looked back at her.

"…where's the candy?" one of them asked.

* * *

Back in the house, Cid speed-dialed Leon on his cell and fidgeted impatiently as he head the dial tone repeating itself over and over. Finally, with a click, a voice came through.

"**Hello?**"

"Aerith, get Leon on the line. It's urgent."

More waiting was forced upon him, and when he at last heard the Committee's leader on the other end, he was not the one to deliver the bad news.

"Leon, you gotta help us," Yuffie informed from her position on his shoulders. "We're being assaulted by three dozen Clouds."

"I thought I told ya to stall them!"

"You forgot their candy, _you_ stall them!"

"**Isn't anybody going to explain to me what is going on?**" Leon's voice filtered in through the handset. "**Is there a problem with the trick-or-treaters?**"

"You could say that," Tifa replied this time, the handset swiftly confiscated from the other two's flailing grips. "Cid here forgot to get the candy, and now we're holed up until help arrives. Any advice…uh huh…really… If you think that works, well… Yes, I trust you. We'll see you in the morning, then-or sooner, yes."

"What did he say?" Yuffie asked urgently as the mobile was clapped shut once more.

"In his words," Tifa answered, "'cover your heads and pray'."

With a second shattering of glass, the foam bat was sailing back in and over their heads to lodge in the side of a stuffed owl. Yuffie shrieked in terror and dove for cover under the couch.

"_Sweet Yevon save us, THE CHILDREN ARE ATTACKING!_"

"… Actually, they've stopped."

Sure enough, all five seconds worth of the second greatest invasion of Radiant Garden had come to past, and in the silence that reigned afterward, the voice of their savior could be heard. And he said unto the hungry masses the words they wanted to hear:

"First one to shut up and behave gets the chocolate chocobo."

* * *

Thirteen hours ago, the Restoration Committee was officially given the night and following day off. An hour later, Cid decided that while he did not like the catch that came with it, he appreciated the kid who made that call.

As the last trick-or-treaters came and went, Cloud – the original Strife himself – saw them off at the door with his usual lack of anything jolly. Somehow, it helped the mood and prevented anyone else from complaining that the chocolate animals and crème eggs he held out to them seemed different – and maybe a little older – than everyone else's handouts.

"I'm surprised you managed to get anything at all," Tifa commented, busy putting away the remaining candy for the night.

"I nearly didn't," Cloud replied, with the door shut behind him. "They were out of their Halloween stock, so the storekeeper let me have their Easter leftovers instead. Still, better than nothing."

Tifa nodded quietly, and then thought twice about taking the last cracked chocobo with fat bloom on its right wing. It was Yuffie who took it instead.

"One of the Cloud minis told me they're going as Sora next year," the ninja informed, as she bit into the confectionary, "that should be fun."

As Cid stared at the headless chocobo in her hands, he felt otherwise.


End file.
